Lights
by Deranged Black Kitten
Summary: It had just been too much of a strain, something no person, not even Rex, could handle and come out at the end of it all without being damaged.
1. Chapter 1

_I was just sitting in front of my computer, minding my own business, when suddenly from out of nowhere, a demon plotbunny came flying at me and latched on to my neck (Ahh! Get it off me! Get it off!), and so now I'm writing this story to satisfy the bunny and get it to leave before it devours my soul. I hope you all enjoy!_

_Disclaimer: I don't own Generator Rex, don't sue me MOA or Cartoon Network, hire me instead!  
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**Chapter One**

It was no secret that working for Providence was a dangerous job. Six had come to terms with his own mortality long ago, and the mortality of his coworkers. He was well prepared for the day he just wasn't quick enough against an Evo, or the day Holiday wasn't quick enough, or the day any other coworker at Providence met their untimely demise. Even Rex, because the kid was impulsive and sometimes just didn't listen. Six would of course fight tooth and nail to keep the boy alive (because Rex's safety was _his_ responsibility, because Rex was important, because...), but he knew that there was always the chance that something could happen and that he wouldn't be there in time to save the kid.

People die. It was just a fact of life.

_This_ though? There was no way he could have suspected, could have prepared for this outcome. Death he could deal with, but this wasn't death, and at the same time, you could hardly call it life either.

From the moment Six saw Rex cure his first Evo after pulling the boy out of the rubble, he'd always suspected the kid would do something great with his life, and just as he thought, Rex had done many great things during his time at Providence. He'd fought and cured more Evos than Six bothered to keep track of. He'd stopped countless disasters from happening and though things sometimes seemed touch-and-go, he always came out alright in the end.

But then came Rex's ultimate gift to the world, his last great act when the entire planet went Evo and the only two left were Rex and White Knight. Somehow, someway, Rex had cured the entire world. _Permanently. _He reprogrammed everyone's nanites, fixed whatever problem that had been causing people to go Evo in the first place, and then put some sort of lock on the nanites' programming to prevent the Evo problem from ever happening again. He even cured the Evos that had been previously listed as incurable.

Six could only guess as to what went on during those three weeks the entire world had been Evos–could only guess as to what conversations had been had between Rex and White Knight over the decisions that had been made in the end–because White Knight wasn't talking and Rex... _couldn't. _All Six really knew about the whole thing was what he read about in the official reports, and the final results, the aftermath of the entire thing...

_...Rex hooked up to some sort of massive machine Six didn't even know Providence had in its possession, staring sightlessly ahead through half-lidded eyes..._

It had just been too much of a strain, curing and reprogramming that many nanites, something no person, not even Rex, could handle and come out at the end of it all without being _damaged._

Six calmly sipped at his coffee, pretending to read the newspaper while in truth he was actually watching the scene going on at the kitchen table before him. Holiday absentmindedly brushing the dark fringe out of Rex's eyes before turning her attention back to the medical files in front of her, Rex just sitting there as she did–dressed in pajamas as he always tended to be these days–and giving no reaction that Holiday had even done anything at all. Then there was Bobo sitting on the other side of Rex, occasionally spooning oatmeal into the boy's mouth.

"My sister's coming by today," Holiday said, not looking up from the papers in her hands. "We've been reading up on how therapy animals can have a positive effect on people with conditions similar to Rex's, so she's bringing a furry friend with her for a trial period."

"We don't need a therapy animal, we have the monkey," Six pointed out.

Holiday paused in reading the forms in front of her to throw Six a frustrated look before saying, "That's different. Bobo talks."

"Unfortunately," Six mumbled under his breath before taking a sip of his coffee.

"A big reason why therapy animals work is because they're completely non-threatening in a way that humans may seem to be for patients like Rex," Holiday explained. "Bobo's mannerisms are too human."

"Hey," the monkey griped. "_Bobo_ is right here and can hear what you're saying."

"Sorry Bobo," Holiday said, giving the monkey a small apologetic smile.

All grumblings about the monkey aside, it was actually a good thing Bobo hadn't changed from the nanites being reprogrammed. Without the threat of Evos, Providence had almost been shut down. The government didn't want to fund them anymore, not seeing the need, but then Dr. Holiday stepped forward with Bobo as 'Exhibit A', a still functioning Evo, and managed to persuade higher-ups to keep Providence open as a nanite research facility. _Had _Providence been shut down, Holiday would have lost access to all of its high tech equipment that she was currently using to try and find a way to heal Rex.

"_Nanites were originally intended for medical use. Maybe I could reprogram some to heal the damage done to Rex."_

Six had actually been a little surprised at first that White Knight–who stayed in charge of Providence even after the Evo disaster–was not only allowing Holiday to focus all her energy into finding a cure for Rex, he was also letting Rex stay at Providence despite the boy's current state and had even made sure that there were extra nurses on hand to help take care of the kid. Six still remembered quite clearly what Knight had said when government officials first came by to audit Providence and had questioned him on the Rex situation.

"_Are you kidding me? Throwing out the kid who saved the planet from total Evo annihilation just because he's disabled and can't work for us anymore? That's a public relations nightmare I don't even want to think about."_

Standing up from the kitchen table, Dr. Holiday said with a note of finality in her voice, "My sister will be by sometime around noon with the animal. Don't give her a hard time, Six."

Six grunted, sipped at his coffee, but otherwise gave no further protest to the idea. He watched as she ruffled Rex's hair, patting the boy on the shoulder gently before gathering up her papers to head off to her lab.

And Rex... Rex still just sat there, staring sightlessly down at the kitchen table.

"Come on, chief," Bobo said, readying another spoonful of oatmeal and guiding it up to Rex's slightly parted lips. "Open wide."

No, this was definitely not an outcome Six could have ever predicted.

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Dr. Holiday's sister was not someone Six had actually known before she'd turned Evo, but ever since she had been cured during the planet-wide reprogramming, she'd been stopping by Providence often enough that Six knew her fairly well now. She was very grateful for what Rex did for her, for the world, and when she wasn't busy completing the rest of her education and earning her master's degree, she liked to stop by and check up on Rex, keep the kid company.

"Hello, Agent Six," Holiday's sister greeted as she adjusted her grip on a small fabric carrying case that kind of looked like a large purse. Six could just barely make out the sight of something furry shifting around inside through the small mesh window in the case's side.

"Anne," he said, nodding in greeting. The first few weeks she had been stopping by Providence, he'd addressed her as '_Ms. Holiday,' _but that had gotten a little confusing and she had insisted that he call her by her first name. One thing Six had learned quickly about Anne was that she was just as stubborn as Dr. Holiday was. Eying the carrying case, he continued, "Your sister said you were bringing by an animal today."

Anne smiled brightly, hefting the carrying case up a bit as she said, "Yes, I think Rex will like her a lot. She's a sweet little thing."

Six hummed in response.

"So," Anne said, undeterred by Six's usual stoic nature. "Where's my favorite boy?"

"Back in his room with the monkey," Six said before leading the way through Providence's halls towards Rex's room, which had undergone a little bit of remodeling since the whole reprogramming event.

It wasn't anything too drastic, just a couple of small changes to make the room look a little more homely and less like you were living in a government facility. The walls had been painted a light blue, the bright florescent lights had been switched out for something that was a little easier on the eyes, a comfy reclining chair had been brought in, and there were a couple of other things of that nature. The changes had been Holiday's idea, both Holiday sisters in fact. They believed that Rex would respond better to a more comforting environment, and Six hadn't been about to argue with them on it.

As Six expected, Rex was seated in the recliner when he and Holiday's sister reached the room, his unfocused gaze on the ground as Bobo held a one-sided conversation. As Anne strode into the room and cheerfully greeted both Rex and Bobo, Six held back and stayed by the door. Leaning up against the wall, he watched as Anne knelt down so that she was at Rex's eye level, and then began to tell Rex about the furry little surprise she brought to show him.

After a bit more forewarning to Rex, she unzipped the carrying case and pulled out... a little white and grey ferret. Six raised an eyebrow and watched the scene with intrigue. He wondered if Rex had ever even seen a ferret before.

Anne gently placed the animal on the blanket that rested over Rex's lap before sitting back with a smile on her face, but at the same time she kept a careful eye on Rex for any negative reaction. The ferret, for its part, sniffed at Rex's limp hands before crawling over them and coming to rest up against the kid's stomach.

For a long while, nothing really happened, but then there was the slightest of movements, so slight that Six would have missed it if he hadn't been watching so closely. The fingers of Rex's right hand twitched against the ferret's tail which had been resting on top of them, almost as if they were brushing against the fur. A moment later and Rex's hand fell still again.

It may not seem like much, but it had been movement. It had been a reaction to outside stimuli, and that was more than they had ever gotten from Rex over the past few months since the reprogramming event.

Six supposed that the ferret could stay. It could at least stop by for another visit every so often.

'_I'm not cleaning any cages or litter boxes though.'_

The monkey could do that.

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_Bl-blankness... and lights. Blurry forms... blobs... green sh-shape. _

_Blank. None... dark... no-nothing... bright... _

_Noise. Noise... Mmm-mmur-murmur... soft... fu-furry... moving furry... _

_soft... tickle... wh-whiskers... furry... sl-slink... slinky... _

_Ha... n-nice furry... nice... tired... sl-sleep... blank. _

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_That's it for this chapter. I originally intended for this to be a oneshot cause I really shouldn't be making any more multi-chapter stories until I finish the ones I already have out, but this plotbunny mutated and now here we are with chapter one. u.u; _

_Man, why are all my stories so depressing? I feel like I'm incapable of writing anything happy. _

_Anyway, Noah will be showing up soon, probably in the next chapter, and I really have no idea how long or short this story's going to be. There will probably be suggested Holix, but I don't know if it will go any further than suggested because I'm so unused to writing that pairing and I feel like I'd probably screw something up. Also, that last little part at the end of the chapter was of course the story from Rex's POV. Rex's POV will be italicized to help distinguish it from everyone else's POV, for now at least. _

_So review please and tell me what you think. Like it? Don't like it? Did I manage to keep everyone in character? Also, any suggestions for names for Six and Holiday? I feel like the time may come when I'll have to use them._


	2. Chapter 2

_Hello everyone! Wow, thanks so much for all your fabulous reviews! I'm glad everyone's enjoying things so far. Well, here's the next chapter where Noah makes his first appearance. _

_Disclaimer: I don't own Generator Rex. Don't sue me. _

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**Chapter Two**

He stared down at the number displayed on his cell phone's screen. All he needed to do was press 'call.' Just one push of a button, that was it, and yet he hesitated because... because... well, for a number of reasons, none of which really seemed all that important or made sense to him now. Why _wasn't _he calling? Why hadn't he called last week, or the week before that, or the _month_ before that? He had been hiding away from reality, trying to forget, trying to pretend that the things that had happened didn't happen. And why?

Because... because it had been _too hard. _

_'Because I'm a bad friend.'_

He swallowed thickly and pressed 'call.' His fingers shook ever so slightly as he held the phone against his ear,

"Noah?" came the voice on the other end of the phone.

She sounded surprised, but of course she would. The last time he had even bothered to call or stop by had been months ago; his last visit having been just a week after the reprogramming event, and the last thing he had said had been a despondent, _"Call me if anything changes."_

"Hi, Dr. Holiday... Um, how are things?"

That's just great. Awkward small-talk. That's _exactly _the reason why he called her.

"Things are going fine, Noah," she said, her tone softening. "How have you been?"

"Good," he said quietly. "Um..."

Come on, just ask already. He at least owed it to Rex to ask, even if he was afraid the answer might be '_no,_' even if he was afraid of the questions Dr. Holiday might ask in return. Questions like '_why haven't you visited?_' or '_what have you been doing that's so important?_'

"I was wondering," he continued hesitantly, "if I could come by and see Rex?"

He should have come by to see Rex sooner. He should have just sucked it up and accepted that Rex was different now; take that tiny ball of pain that came from seeing his best friend in such a state and shove it somewhere in the back of his mind where it wouldn't bother him. Sure, that wasn't the healthy way of dealing with things, but it was how most people handled bad situations and he'd deal with the ulcer if it came on later. Whatever.

"Sure, Noah," Dr. Holiday said, a smile clear from her tone. "Rex will be happy to see you."

A tiny bit of nervous pressure eased up from his heart when she said that, even as a small negative voice in the back of his mind said scornfully that '_no he wouldn't,' _that Rex probably wouldn't know that he was even there, that Rex probably didn't even notice that he hadn't been around for the past couple of months.

He shook his head, pushing the negativity to the side, because you have to try and stay optimistic about these sort of things. You have to try and hope for the best.

"Great," he said, though his voice lacked confidence, and suddenly he didn't seem too sure about this whole thing.

'_Just great.'_

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_'So what are you getting your friend, Rex, for Christmas this year?'_

His mother's initially innocent question echoed through his head in sync with his footsteps which sounded throughout the empty halls of Providence. It had been quite clear from the expression that passed over her face, just seconds after she had asked him, that the question had slipped out, that she had been distracted and hadn't really meant to ask him that. At the sight of his own wide-eyed, deer-in-headlights look though, a look of determination had settled on his mother's face and he could practically hear her thinking, '_No more walking on eggshells.' _

Following that was a talk about how him avoiding the situation wasn't helping anyone. It was a talk he hadn't wanted to have, but needed to hear all the same, and now here he was, back at Providence, on his way to see Rex.

He huffed out a breath, walking a couple of paces back and forth down one of the hallways. He lightly slapped his hands against the sides of his legs before fiddling with the hem of his jacket. He pretty much knew exactly where Rex was, having just asked one of the Providence workers on his way in, and could easily find his way there if he wanted to. That was just the thing though, he wasn't sure if he wanted to. Had he come all this way just to chicken out?

'_Yeah, sounds about right,' _he thought bitterly.

He just... he just wasn't sure. About anything really. What did he want from this trip? What did he hope to gain? He had no freaking clue. It wasn't like he'd had some sort of epiphany over the past couple of months and suddenly knew what to do or say or _think_ about this situation to make it all seem okay. It wasn't as if he was suddenly alright with what had happened to Rex, and he was most definitely _not_ okay with, or – or even _ready _to see Rex as he is now in that unresponsive state. He didn't think he'd ever be ready though, probably could never truly completely accept the situation for what it was.

So he paced the hallways, pretending for a moment that he was just lost, and it was this fidgeting, nervous state that Agent Six eventually found him in, which didn't exactly make things any better in Noah's book. Dr. Holiday had been accepting of the fact that he had disappeared from Providence and hadn't shown up to visit Rex over the past couple of months, she hadn't even brought it up in conversation. Six was an unknown though, so Noah really didn't know what to expect from the agent.

"Agent Six," he greeted, almost feeling like his throat was closing up. He adverted his eyes to the ground. "Uh, I'm-I'm sorry that... that I haven't been by in awhile. It was just... just _too hard..."_

Too hard to see his best friend who had been so expressive and so full of life reduced to such a mindless state. Not moving, not speaking, not responding to anything or anyone, and probably not even aware of the world going on around him. Yeah, it was too hard. It was _still _too hard. He wasn't sure that he could do this.

"It's alright, Noah," Six said.

No it wasn't.

"You don't have to explain anything to me," and though this was said tonelessly, in a usual 'Six' fashion, Noah could tell that it was meant to be comforting.

"You're here now. That's what matters," Agent Six finished.

Yeah, here and _stalling. _It would be so much easier to just turn around now and leave, forget that he had even stopped by and just remember Rex as he had been, but that wouldn't be right, and he'd hate himself for it later.

It was like he was standing at the open door of an airplane, hundreds of feet in the air with a parachute or a jet-pack or whatever on his back, all set and ready to jump and yet unwilling to take the leap. Before the nanite reprogramming event, Rex definitely would have been the one to give him the push he needed (hell, Rex would have been the one to talk him into getting on the archaic airplane to begin with to do something as stupid as skydiving), but Rex wasn't there anymore. Rex had jumped first and was on the ground, waiting for him.

Who would have guessed that it was Six who was next in line to push him out that plane door?

"Right about now, someone takes Rex out into the Petting Zoo for a change in scenery," Agent Six remarked.

Noah's eyes widened, his gaze shooting up to Six as he asked incredulously, "The _Petting Zoo?"_

Six raised an eyebrow at him, as if to ask Noah if he honestly thought they were _that_ irresponsible, before explaining, "All the dangerous animals were removed a while back since there was really no need to keep them around. The place is really more of a garden now."

"Oh," Noah said quietly and almost had to laugh at his previous concern. After all, there was no way Six or Holiday or even Bobo would let any danger come to Rex. '_Heh, obviously.'_

"Why don't we intercept the nurse before she brings Rex out and take him out ourselves instead?" Six suggested.

Any lingering humor vanished from Noah's mind. Take Rex to the Petting Zoo? Take his best friend out to the place they had gotten in to trouble for sneaking into a couple times in the past – strengthening their friendship because of those mishaps – and not just take him there, _wheel_ him there in a wheelchair because Rex didn't even have enough of his mind to be able to walk on his own.

Noah swallowed thickly, rubbing his sweaty palms against his pant legs. Damn, was he ready for this? No, there was no way he was, but the proverbial push out the plane door had come anyway, and he just had to let himself fall.

Hunching his shoulders, he nodded his head and said, "Yeah, okay."

The wind was whipping past his face, the ground was fast approaching...

_'Here I come, Rex.'_

It was time to see his friend.

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His grip tightened around the handles of Rex's wheelchair, Agent Six walking leisurely beside him as the three wandered aimlessly around what had once been the Petting Zoo. It really was nothing more than a glorified garden now with harmless insects flying about and the occasional bird flying overhead.

Sighing, Noah's gaze drifted down to his friend. If you ignored for a moment the vacant stare, the slumped posture and the complete lack of movement, Rex didn't really look all that different at all... Except those thing were pretty much _impossible_ to ignore when you knew what Rex had been like beforehand.

Noah pursed his lips, feeling at a loss on what to do. Should he talk to Rex? It wasn't like the other boy could respond to him. Should he apologize to Rex for not coming to visit him for so long? But then, could Rex even hear him, understand him? Probably not. Did Rex even know he was there? Again, pessimism said most likely not. Noah almost made a comparison between this and talking to a gravestone before stopping himself. That was just a train of thought he didn't want to get into.

Six's voice broke him from his thoughts when the agent asked, "Do you want some time to... talk to him alone?"

Noah's gaze drifted over to the sixth deadliest man in the world, and he couldn't help but feel a little amused over how uncomfortable Six looked, even if it was only slightly noticeable, as if the agent would rather not have to have this conversation. Noah felt like he should give the man a pass on this conversation considering that Six had given him a little bit of a pep talk once already today on the whole 'not visiting for a couple months' thing.

Despite thinking that though, the thought that '_Rex would really get a kick out of this' _had him slumping his shoulders and admitting, "I don't know what I'm doing here."

They stopped walking. For a moment, the sounds of the wildlife around them were the only things that could be heard.

"I don't know why I came," Noah eventually continued. "I mean, yeah, I came to visit Rex. But... _why? _What do you even say to your friend when you're not even sure if your friend is in there anymore? I... I don't know what to do around him. I don't know how I should act around him."

"I can't tell you how to cope with this, Noah," Six said. "Everyone has their own individual way of dealing with things."

'_Apparently my way of dealing with things is to _not_ deal with them,' _he thought sullenly, looking down. _'Real great, Noah.'_

"As for how you should '_act'_?" Six said, drawing Noah's attention back up to him, "I don't think you need to _'act'_ in any particular way. Just be the friend that you are to him."

Just be his friend? Was that his reason for coming here today? His friendship with Rex, and trying to fix some sort of gap he felt like he had caused to grow between them?

'_He _is_ still your friend, isn't he?' _his mind asked.

'_Well of course he is,_' Noah thought back without hesitation.

Walking around the wheelchair so that he was facing Rex, Noah sat down in the dirt in front of his friend. Leaning over to the side a bit so that he was in Rex's line-of-sight, he stared up into that vacant expression, searching for he-didn't-know-what. He rested his hand on one of Rex's knees, but of course the other boy didn't respond and Noah pulled his hand away shortly after.

The optimistic side of him said that Rex was still in there somewhere. The pessimistic side had lost all speaking rights. The realistic side of him, close cousin to Mr. Pessimism, said that there's a chance Rex could improve, that there's a chance he might not get any better than this, and if there is a chance that he improves, it's very likely that he'll never get back to being one-hundred percent better, but that either way, he and Rex were still friends.

Had their roles been reversed, he knew that Rex would still be his friend.

'_Things won't be _completely_ the same,' _he knew. '_It's not like we can just go out and play basketball or whatever.'_

That's part of what friendship was though, wasn't it? You accept the changes as they come and still be friends despite those changes. You find a way to make it work.

"I'm sorry I haven't been by in a while to visit you, Rex," Noah finally said. "I'll be by a lot more regularly now though and we can hang out."

Staring up into those blank eyes, he could almost imagine Rex being hidden somewhere in there and saying something like, _"You better!" _and also, _"When I get back to normal, I owe you a punch for flaking out on me."_

_'Be his friend...'_

His gaze drifting over to Agent Six, Noah remarked with a slight smile, "You know, at this point, Rex and I would have some sort of plan to sneak out of Providence."

Six raised an eyebrow at him and got an expression on his face that clearly said, '_Yeah, that's not going to happen.'_

Ducking his head a little, his smile turning more nervous, Noah was quick to explain himself, "Since that's clearly not an option, I was thinking that maybe... I could take Rex out someplace? A change of scenery that's not Providence?"

Six thought about it for a moment before saying, "With a chaperon, I don't see why not. Come up with some place to go and I'll run it by Holiday."

"Alright," Noah said.

Standing up from where he had been sitting in front of Rex, Noah brushed the dirt off his pants and returned to his job of pushing Rex's wheelchair. As they continued their walk around the Petting Zoo, Noah couldn't help but feel a bit better. Granted, he still didn't feel completely okay with everything that had happened, but he did feel lighter, as if some of the crushing weight of despair had been pulled off of him.

"Things haven't been all bad, Noah," Six said not too long after they continued walking, and Noah threw a curious gaze in the agent's direction. "Just the other day, Holiday's sister brought a ferret by and Rex kind of pet the rodent."

Noah smiled. That was good news. Maybe his optimistic side had more merit than he thought.

"Of course, now on top of the monkey, I have a ferret to deal with," Six said, not as positively as before.

"At least the ferret doesn't talk," Noah pointed out humorously.

It was probably just a trick of the eye, but for a second, Noah could have sworn he saw Six smile.

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_no-nothing... blank... lost..._

_wait..._

_bl-blurry... shapes... green shape... blank... blank..._

_wait... moving? blurs... blobs... Mm... bright... space? Ah.. big here... moving... _

_hnn... b-boring..._

_fade... blank... blank... nada..._

_Noise! ...huh?_

_New noise... know... know this... noise... fa-familiar... nice.._

_blurry... moving... wait... no... st-stopped... know no-noise..._

_blur... ye-yellow... and-and... blue dos... know that... Hola_

_good... know... hm... fade... no-noth..nada... blank..._

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_I've decided to end the chapter here. There will be more to come, hopefully another chapter before Christmas, since that chapter takes place before Christmas as well. _

_And hopefully the interaction between Noah and Six was realistic enough. _

_Review please and tell me what you think!  
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